Hard disk drives (HDDs) are used to store digital data content for laptops, desktop computers, servers and other electronic devices in use today.
Every HDD interface communicates with the rest of the computer via the computer input/output (I/O) bus. The interface is the communication channel over which the data flows as the data is read from or written to the HDD. There are many types of HDD interfaces and they include Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA), Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), Serial ATA (SATA), Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), and Fibre Channel. The list of HDD interfaces described in this section is not exhaustive and is constantly increasing to keep pace with the ever changing demands of the electronic devices which dictate the specifications of the HDDs and their interfaces.
The SATA interface and the SAS interface are the two most commonly adopted interfaces in the HDD industry today. The SATA headers are often used on HDDs that are fitted with laptops and desktop computers while the SAS headers are used on HDDs fitted with enterprise server systems.
Available in the market today are specialized production test equipment used for testing the HDDs' reliability before the HDDs are released for sale. However, most of these test equipments are designed specifically for HDDs with a specific type of interface.
Also, the repeated mating and un-mating of the header on the HDD with the socket on the HDD production test equipment wears out the socket on the HDD production test equipment after a pre-defined number of cycles dependent on the specification of the socket on the HDD production test equipment. The replacement of the socket on the HDD production test equipment is often tedious and time-consuming resulting in HDD production downtime.
To solve the two problems cited, an intermediate connector (henceforth referred to as sacrificial connector) is used to couple the header on the HDD to the socket on the HDD production test equipment by mating the header on the HDD to the socket end of the sacrificial connector and mating the socket on the HDD production test equipment to the header end of the sacrificial connector. Since the connection and disconnection of the HDD to the HDD production test equipment is now via the sacrificial connector, any wear and tear due to repeated mating and un-mating action will happen on the sacrificial connector instead of the socket on the HDD production test equipment.
Along with this solution comes the need to secure the sacrificial connector to the socket on the HDD production test equipment during the mating and un-mating of the HDD to/from the HDD production test equipment via the sacrificial connector.
It would be desirable to provide a device that can be used to secure one connector to another connector easily.